‘That is difficult, too, Your Majesty,’ the security minister replied. ‘For a start, the servers require certain holes in order to be able to operate – holes like vents, cable openings and disk drives, for example. And, as you know, ants are excellent borers and have any number of tiny but powerful tools for drilling quickly through all sorts of materials – a legacy from their nest-dwelling days. To truly guarantee the security of our machines, the only effective method is to check, double-check and triple-check. Which means’ – he turned to the lead engineer and chief security officer – ‘that there cannot and must not be any let-up in vigilance. Even a momentary lapse in concentration could have dire consequences,’ he said darkly. ‘Is that understood?’

‘Yes, Minister!’ the two dinosaurs shouted in unison, standing to attention.

The minister’s gaze now settled on a server to his right. ‘Inspect this machine,’ he commanded.

The chief security officer said something into her two-way radio and five dinosaur engineers immediately hurried over, armed with flashlights, magnifying glasses and other tools, as well as two specialised instruments. The engineers opened the cabinet door and began to carefully inspect the interior. This was no easy task. The wiring and components inside the server formed a tangled knot, and the dinosaurs had to pore over it with their magnifying glasses as if they were reading a long, convoluted essay or wandering through a complicated maze.

Just as Dadaeus and his ministers were beginning to get impatient, one of the engineers shouted, ‘Oh, I’ve found something! It’s a mine-grain.’ He passed the magnifying glass to Dadaeus. ‘Your Majesty, it’s right there, on that green wire.’

The emperor peered through the magnifying glass and gave a satisfied grunt. Another dinosaur pulled out a pen-shaped object – a miniature vacuum cleaner – and pressed the nib to the wire. With the flick of a switch, the little yellow pellet was sucked up off the wire.

‘Well done!’ The security minister patted the engineer on the shoulder, then turned to Dadaeus. ‘Your Majesty, this dummy mine-grain was placed there on my orders, to test the effectiveness of the centre’s security-inspection process.’

‘Hmph!’ Dadaeus was unimpressed. ‘I have my doubts about the efficacy of all this.’ He flicked an imperious claw in the direction of a magnifying glass. ‘It’s all so suffocatingly small! As you say, the ants are little and devious. If they are determined to cause havoc, it’ll be very difficult to beat them at their own game. No, the most effective way to counter the ant menace is by threatening full-on retaliation. They need look no further than the decimation of their two greatest cities. That’s the sort of deterrent the Ant Federation understands. Am I not right?’

He glowered at his ministers, daring them to contradict him, then carried on.